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Sunday, May 31

Busy preparing for Small-N-Grubby's birthday party whilst SMO has taken them off to kids cricket coaching. My annoyance is that we've only had one reply to the party invitations. I have one excited little boy and people can't even be bothered to let us know if they are coming or not!

Whilst I sit and steam I thought I would share some Sunday photos from the garden for HS:MS:HS. This Hebe doesn't flower every year but the circumstances must be right because ........

Spent a lot of time in the garden yesterday, but the children had control of the camera, haven't had a chance to look yet and see what pics are on there.

Saturday, May 30

Looks like it's going to be a lovely weekend. I might even get a little bit of craft done whilst the kids play in the garden. Which will be great as I've treated myself to 2 new kits for June. A Patchwork Kingdom one in the sales which includes stamps and a selection from the BoBunny Calypso line.

Here's the Tilda card I made.

Not what I started out to do but she fell across the ladybird background at that angle and I liked the look of it.

Also made a card for this week's DCM challenge which is to use 5 of something on your card.

My portrait for HS:MS:HS is slightly different as no faces! I loved the way these 2 were playing together and, although it was difficult to get a shot where they kept still, it was a moment I really wanted to capture.

Friday, May 29

Yes, having not made anything for days and days I am feeling like crafting and it's down to this little lady.

Luv 'em or hate 'em there's no denying the quality of these little stamps. The image is cut really well and it stamps really clearly, you get what you pay for. Now I just have to get making!

Yesterday's HS:MS:HS was 'Tower'. Here's the Supreme Commander in his 1st real pair of jimmie jams and there's a princess tower just tucked down the side of him.

It's quite nice having a big sister cos there's no need for an excuse to have dolls and girly stuff in the house. If you just have boys I wouldn't hesitate to get a few 'girl' toys especially when they are young. A little pram is a must, after all Fireman Sam can always ride in it.

Today's HS:MS:HS is 'Laugh'. I'm pleased to say laughter is one thing we are not short of round here and I can honestly say we laugh every day!

Wednesday, May 27

It looks like the final team line-up for the Hospice Moonlight Walk has been decided and it's AJ's 7, a bit like Blake's 7 but hopefully without the wobbly scenery. There's me and my 2 sisters. Between us we have 8 children but only my 3 eldest nieces are old enough to enter so they will join us. Along with a family friend to adjudicate over the bickering that makes 7. Not that we'll argue of course!

Today's HS:MS:HS is 'Winner'. I've chosen this pair of winners from the latest round of ballet medals. Small-N-Grubby also took his 1st ballet exam, but we won't hear about that until the end if term.

After a glorious few days its now thoroughly wet and miserable. The plan of action is, therefore, to go to my mum's for the afternoon which is rapidly turning into some sort of surf party! I bought a couple of kids lilos in Poundland and they are taking them to their grandma's ready to turn her conservatory into a surfer's paradise. Personally I'm taking OK magazine and hoping they keep quiet long enough for me to read all the trashy gossip.

Tuesday, May 26

Well for once unbelievably good weather on a bank holiday weekend! So we were able to embark on our 8 mile practice walk in almost too hot sunshine with cloudless blue skies above us. What is it they say about mad dogs and English men?? The route had been planned with an online route guide thing with rather too many main roads so we veered off on a couple of short cuts to walk down quieter roads and think that took us down to about 7.5 miles.

Due the hot weather my feet blistered for the 1st time since I have been 'in training'. The trainers had been well worn in over the last few weeks so I didn't think my toes or heels would suffer and I was right as it was the balls of my over heating feet that blistered. I'm walking fine but will now have to decide if I want to plaster those areas in advance on the night. I'm very glad that we are walking at midnight and the weather will have to be very freaky for it to be too hot!

Our route did take us along part of the proposed official walk and it will be interesting to see these sights in the dark!

The mill taken from an odd angle to exclude idiots leaping in.

The cathedral, not sure how well it's lit at night.

And an unobliging swan.

Today's HS:MS:HS is 'Woodland' so I've pulled up a photo from my Broken Bridges 4 mile ish practice walk a few week's ago. There are 7 bridges on the walk. We can't decide if it's called 'Broken Bridges' because the walk is broken up by them or because they are, for the most part broken! This is the 1st one which leads you on into thinking 7 beautiful picturesque bridges await......

Saturday, May 23

Having still had no enthusiasm for anything the last few days I thought I would take a look and see what HS:MS:HS I had missed. I saw that Friday's prompt was 'Foot' and had to use this photo of Himself when a couple of week's old.

I was obsessed with taking photos of his little feet and still haven't got the shot I wanted.

My feet are going to be taking a battering tomorrow as I have an 8 mile walk planned with my family. For those who haven't heard, this is because I have rather rashly signed up for a moonlight half marathon walk in aid of a local hospice. I filled in the application form quite early on as I thought this would spur me into action. All I've achieved so far is a feeling that I am not even as fit as I thought I was (which let me tell you was not that fit anyway!) and I'm convinced I'll be lucky to make it half way round.

I have duly set up a joint JustGiving page for my whole group that are walking. We're called 'AJ's Lot' in memory of my dad whose birthday was the day the walk kicks off. The page is hereif anyone would like to read more or sponsor us.

Thursday, May 14

'Juice' is today's word at HS:MS:HS and I thought that was as good an excuse as any to have freshly squeezed juice with my breakfast.

Found a few cards I made whilst I was off line. I know some card makers aren't fond of 12x12 papers but I really like working with them. Take one sheet of double sided 12x12 card (in this case an old bit of My Minds Eye) cut into 3 and you have 3 top (tent) folding 6x4 cards.

There's another one with an owl on to make the set of 3, I'll have to look for it!

Housework today but I think I might try and fit a scrapbook page in there too.

Wednesday, May 13

Oh yes, not only blogging but finding time to craft too. Thanks for all the lovely comments yesterday.

1st today's HS:MS:HS is 'Rock'. It's wet and miserable today so no opportunity to go on a little photo trek (which I hope to do soon). So instead I found a pet rock.

In the June issue of Craft Stamper there's a really great article on 'colouring' stamped images in shades of grey. Liked the look of it and so I thought I would have a bash.

Quite pleased with my 1st attempt (couldn't resist a bit of glitter on the wings).

I used a set of Copic grey tones, Copics seem to be everywhere at the moment but they really are very good. You can get 2 sorts of grey tones cool, which I used, and warm which gives a more sepia effect like in the magazine article.

Now I have to stop myself colouring in everything grey.

This little fat so-and-so was on my patio yesterday evening waiting to be fed and sitting very still.

Just about managed a shot of mum arriving with some food.

They had moved on by the time I had dug out my bigger camera. Might have to look out for them again this evening.

Tuesday, May 12

I've temporarily gone pink and made a quick new header for the blog whilst I think about what I want the redesign to look like.

Today's HS:MS:HS is 'Guard'. This little chap guards the front door.

Not everyone's cup of tea I know, but I luvs him and especially like the way he is twiddling his toes.

Whipped up a quick card for the Daring Card Makers. This week the challenge is to include the word 'mum', so I have got ahead with a birthday card (it's OK she's not on the net to see it!).

I thought I would try out floral punch art.

I love that this is breathing new life into old tools and supplies. Armed with some free papers in this months Cardmaking and Papercraft I didn't have to buy anything new to tackle the project. Took my inspirations from an article by Joanne Gelnar in a back issue of Papercraft Essentials. It's even inspired me to order a leaf punch, which at £2.49 won't break the bank!

Monday, May 11

It's about time I got back to some real blogging. After looking at several freebie photo organisers to download I got fed up with wading through all the jargon and went for the same one I had before.

Thought I would kick-off with today's HS:MS:HS, which is 'Carry'. However, I stumbled at the 1st hurdle lacking inspiration and opportunity and then getting really muddled about whether my photos were 'carry' or really 'hold'. As the youngest member of the family is growing very fast I thought I would go for a sequence of pics of Himself carrying food to his mouth! (all a bit blurry as this boy doesn't stay still for 2 seconds).

I think it's about time I changed the look of my blog page, it must have been like this for a year. Now let's see what I can do.